The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5 has offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and the Citizen’s Crime Commission has offered $5,000 for the arrest and conviction of the suspects in the following case:

On Monday, January 14, 2013, at 8:50am, a five year-old female student was abducted from Bryant Elementary school, located at 6001 Cedar Avenue. The child was taken out of the Hazel Street exit of the school, them left on 61st Street. The child was taken to a house in the area, where her female abductor was joined by the above male. The victim was recovered on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, at 4:40am at 69th Street and Marshal Rd in Upper Darby, PA.

Philadelphia, August 3, 2012 – Mayor Michael A. Nutter joined City officials to ceremonially break ground on the new DHS/SVU co-location site located at 300 East Hunting Park Avenue. The new facility will combine the Philadelphia Police Department Special Victims Unit (SVU), the Department of Human Services (DHS) Sexual Abuse Investigations Unit, the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance and staff from the District Attorney’s Office.

“This co-location facility is critical to coordinating crime-response strategies across the City of Philadelphia,” said Mayor Nutter. “Bringing together these different agencies that share the same goal, to support and protect the victims of sexual abuse, will further enhance the efficiency of investigations and the efficacy of services provided to victims.”

“We are thrilled to be breaking ground on this Co-location facility that will enable DHS and our partner agencies to provide better care and services to children who have been sexually abused. The thoughtful design of the center will allow us to lessen the trauma of the investigative process so victims will no longer have to repeatedly relive the events of their assault” said DHS Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose.

Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said, “We have to do everything we possibly can to help victims of sexual abuse. The process of coming forward will always be difficult but we [the Police], DHS and our advocate partners can work as a system to treat everyone with compassion and humanity as we fight for justice. This is a progressive and necessary step in that direction.”

The current building is 30,000 sq. ft. Ironstone Partners, LLC will renovate the building, adding an additional 10,000 sq. ft. The space will feature a new, landscaped courtyard and a parking lot for approximately 140 vehicles. Once completed, the PPD SVU will have two entrances and DHS and PCA will share an entrance. The anticipated completion of the renovation is late 2012 to early 2013.

“This is not only an extremely important day, it is very long overdue,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “For over 20 years now the District Attorney’s Office has been working with the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance to make this day a reality. I am proud to say with this new co-location building we will not be able to better serve families, reduce trauma to victims and ultimately obtain justice for children. This is truly a great day for the entire city of Philadelphia.”

Chris Kirchner, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance, said, “Our dream is truly becoming a reality today as we break ground on this remarkable facility. This co-located facility will be a testament to how much the City of Philadelphia cares about its kids and how child victims of sexual abuse deserve the best response when they have the courage to share what happened to them. The collaboration that will take place in this facility among the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance, Dept. of Human Services, the Special Victims Unit, the District Attorney’s Office, and medical professionals will directly benefit child victims and their families.”

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Philadelphia Children’s Alliance Imagine a safe haven, where every child affected by the trauma of sexual abuse in Philadelphia is able to begin the healing process; a place where experts in the fields of social work, law enforcement, child protective services, medicine and prosecution collaborate to achieve justice for each child; a place that works to ensure that justice is carried out; that place is the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance (PCA). There are 1,600 reports of child sexual abuse each year in Philadelphia, PCA works to bring healing and justice to every child.

Over the last several days, Special Victims Unit investigators have made arrests in two high profile cases. When asked how they gathered evidence and were able to arrest the offenders in these cases Lt Anthony McFadden replied simply, “Sheer determination and soft pretzels for every meal.” Captain John Darby, Commanding Officer of the Special Victims Unit, tried to deflect the praise, “The amazing part about it was that people from across the globe were trying to help us catch criminals.” The Captain was speaking of tips we received from across the world. One of those tips came from Rob Murano of Woburn, Massachusetts. Rob studied the surveillance video and was able to pinpoint the make, model and year of the suspect’s vehicle and sent us his findings in an email. Another came all the way from Germany. Kenneth Weselake, an employee of BMW, used his expertise in motor vehicles and also identified the make, model and year of the car we were looking for. Ken also said that he was looking forward to helping law enforcement in the future.

Captain John Darby, Commanding Officer Special Victims Unit

These dedicated investigators are used to working behind the scenes without much recognition, but today we are putting them out in front to honor the work that they do. The public should know, SVU investigators may be in the news now, but next week, next month, next year when this blog post is a distant memory, they will be hard at work doing the things that they do to make our city a safer place. From Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, thank you SVU and keep up the good work!